The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1887-08-17


eha;sworth was tErned into a morgue to-
day. The Town Hall, the engine house aud
the depot were full of dead bodies, while ev-
cry house in the village has it, quota of the
ing in the exiemporized deadhonses, and
every man aud woman was turned INTO
an amateur but jealous nurse. Over in a
lumber yard the noise Of hammers and saws
rang out in the air, and busy carpenters were
making rough collins to carry TO their homes
the dead bodies of the excnrsionistsl who Il
hours before had left their homes full of
pleasurable expectations of the enjoyment
they were going to have during the vacation
which had begun.
When the news of the disaster WAS first
flashed over the wires, prompt aid was at
once sent. DIR. Steele, chief surgeon OF the
Toledo, Peoria and Western Road, had come
on a special train, and with him there were
two other surgeons and their assistants.
From Peoria also came Drs. Martin, Baker
Fluegler and johnson, and from every city
whence the unfortunate excursionists had
come their physicians and friends hurried on
to help them From Peoria had also come
delegations of the Red men and the Ancient
Order Of United Workmen, members OF both
societies being ON the ill-fated train, and so
after O'Clock this morning there were plen-
~ of people to do the work that needed such
prompt attention. In the Town Hall was
the main hospital. and in it anxios relatives
and sorrowing friends sat and, tanning gent
" the sufferers faces queried the attending
surgeons as they bound up their wounds and
insisted that there must be hope. Down in
the deadhouses fathers, husbands, brothers,
sisters, wives and children iearfully inspec-
ted each face as il was uncovered, and sighed
as the features were unknown, or cried ont
in anguish when the well-known face, some
times learfully mangled. but yet recognizable
was uneo, eaed The entire capacity OF the
little village was taxed. and kind-hearted
women drove in for miles To give their gentle
ininistrations 10 the sufferers.
No sooner had the wreck occurred than
scene of robbery commenced. Some band of
unsi,eakable miscreants, heartless and with
unly animal instincts. was on hand, anl like
the gIerrillas who throng the battlefield the
night after the conflict and filch from the
dead the money which they received for
their meager pay, stealing even the bronze
li,siais and robbing from the children Of he
roe, ne emblcms of their fathers bravery.
81 last night did these human hyenas plum
49,. ,!ie dead from this terrible accident and
take even the shoes which covered their feet.
Who these bad wretches are is unknown.
whether they were a band of pickpockets
who accompanied the train or some robber
gang who were lurking in the vicinity can
not be said. The horrible suspicion, howev-
er, exists and their are many who give it
credit that the accident was a deliberately
planned case of train wrecking; that the
bridge was set on fire by miscreants who ho-
ped to seize the opportunity Offered, and
the fact that the bridge was so far consumed
at the time the train came along, and the
added fact that the train was an hour and a
half late, are pointed out as evidences of a
careful conspiracy. II seems hardly possible
that men could be 50 lost to all the ordinary
feelings which animate the basest of the hui
man race still men who will rob dead men;
who viii steal from the dying and will
piunder the wounded held down 10y broken
beams of wrecked ear, whose death by fire
seemed imminent, can do anything which is
base, and that is what these iiends in human
form did.
They went into the cars when the fire was
burning tiercely underneath and when the
poor wretches who were pinned there begged
them : for Gods sake TO help them out,
stripped them of their watches and jewelry
and searched their pockets for money. When
the dead bodies were laid out in the corntield
these hyenas turned them over in search OF
their valuables, and that the plundering was
| done by an organized gang was proven by
the fact that this morning out in the corn
field sixteen purses, all empty, were found
in one heap. 1t was a ghastly plundering
and had the plunderers been caught this
afternoon they would surely have been
lVnched